China-Australia relations are going to be a big issue this election

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If there was any doubt China would be a significant issue in the federal election campaign, that has surely been put to bed.

China won’t be happy about that. Creeping Chinese influence in politics, academia and critical telecommunications networks have been at the centre of continuing chilly relations between Beijing and Canberra — and the accusations are unlikely to go away.

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This comes at a time where the major parties have been publicly musing and experimenting with how to capture what they perceive as the growing Chinese-Australian vote. It creates a further conundrum for both sides of politics on exactly how to characterise China and how much influence politicians are ready to address to.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was caught up this week in Four Corners’ investigation for his past connections to now notorious Chinese billionaire and donor Huang Xiangmo, who was barred from entering Australia in November after being rejected for a permanent residency visa on the advice of security agencies. A meeting between Dutton and Huang (and another between Huang and retiring cabinet minister Christopher Pyne) was organised for a fee by former Liberal senator turned lobbyist Santo Santoro.

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull has since leapt on the chance to needle Dutton, who was behind the spill that saw him kicked out of The Lodge in 2018. At a speaking engagement in Sydney, Turnbull said:

Look, Peter Dutton has got a lot to explain about this. He is supposed to be the minister responsible for the domestic security of Australia, he is supposed to be the minister responsible for ensuring our politics is not influenced by foreign actors.

The Four Corners program, a joint effort with Nine’s Nick McKenzie, also pointed to Tony Abbott, who has been linked to a Chinese influence peddler — media mogul and casino boss Tommy Jiang. Abbott also rubbed shoulders with other figures connected to the ruling Communist Party during the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.

Now the Coalition is now trying to retrain the spotlight on opposition leader Bill Shorten, who had lunch with Huang in 2015 following a $55,000 donation to Labor.

This comes after a fortnight of the major parties engaging in a chest-beating contest about who loves China the most — with Shorten gushing that he welcomed China’s rise and Scott Morrison throwing $44 million at a new Australia-China Foundation. There is little news about the foundation, which appears to be a continuation of the governments policy of press release strategy.

Then there have been the other issues bubbling away, such as the strange case of Virgin Australia’s secretive new pilot training school being built near Tamworth, in Barnaby Joyce’s seat of New England. The school is in partnership with Chinese conglomerate HNA which is linked to the provincial government in southern Hainan province. This connection was told only to Chinese language media and not mainstream Australian media.

It’s interesting timing by a senior bureaucrat — now one of Canberra’s most powerful — and it’s hard to think it’s a coincidence.

It may be further evidence that Australian security authorities are so concerned about China that they are prepared to go public and make the government — and opposition — confront a thorny issue no politician wants to go anywhere near during an election campaign.

Good luck with that.

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6 thoughts on “China-Australia relations are going to be a big issue this election”

James O'Neill

Perhaps one day Crikey will run a story on other foreign entitles that seek to influence Australian foreign policy. They might start with Washington and Tel Aviv and ask why it is we consistently act in a way that does not serve Australia’s national interest, but surely serves the interest of those two foreign powers.

applet

Arky

“It may be further evidence that Australian security authorities are so concerned about China that they are prepared to go public and make the government — and opposition — confront a thorny issue no politician wants to go anywhere near during an election campaign.”

This would be a deeply concerning interference by the security services in domestic politics and thankfully I can’t see it happening.

The major story then would be the security services trying to interfere in an election campaign, not China.

Oldie

I think it has already happened with all the news recently about Beijing’s influence and it will continue to happen up to the election, if not after. But I wouldn’t be too alarmed by it because (1) both parties have been equally implicated in these incidents (2) both are equally terrified of damaging our trade relations with China (3) it exposes the naivety, greed and stupidity of politicians in both parties when it comes to foreign relations.

graybul

“This comes at a time where the major parties have been publicly musing . . . . how to to capture what they perceive as the growing Chinese-Australian vote.”

If you vote; your Australian! Not Chinese-Australian; not Italian-Australian; not Turkish-Australian. It is the mixing of culture that strengthens us . . . not prior nationality. Multi-culturalism is a generational merging of cultures that defines an Australian. Hyphenated nationalities divides.